The Garden Project: Na Keiki Aloha ‘Āina
(by/from the children who love the land)

The vision for this project is that the entire student body, all faculty and administration, and interested parent volunteers will actively participate throughout the academic year and the summer. Within two years, we expect to have our garden well established with gardening as a regular, integrated activity in the school, involving students, teachers, and parents from all levels.

Goals include:

• foster in students a sense of appreciation for the natural world
• actively engage students in the creation and maintenance of the garden
• inspire and educate students and theirfamilies about small scale food production through the development of an on-site garden

Children will:

• identify both native and invasive species
• learn the growing process from germinationto the end of the life cycle
• actively work in the garden—watering, weeding,harvesting, etc.
• learn environmental needs of plants
• appreciate the difference between “grown here v. flown here”
• understand the composting process by collecting student lunch leftovers daily
  to contribute to thecomposting bin

Teachers and administrators will:

• learn basic gardening and plant identification skills in order to teach those skills to students and parent volunteers
• work side-by-side with students and parents to develop and maintain the garden
• actively seek to incorporate garden projects into the existing curriculum, using hands-on garden-based projects to supplement classroom teaching
• promote a local food economy, where possible, within the school’s ‘ohana

Parents will:

• volunteer and work alongside students and teachers in the garden, as their
  time and interest allow
• be welcome and encouraged to learn alongside their children about basicgardening skills, plant identification (native v. invasive species, for example, and the importance of a localfood economy on Hawai‘i Island
• volunteer to participate in the Seedling Sale by helping students both at school and at home to grow seedlings, pot them for sale, and work the sale itself
  
  For more information, contact Amy Salling: Tel. 808-885-0067 or e-mailasalling@waimeacountryschool.org, or please visit the Waimea Country School website at http://www.waimeacountryschool.org/garden.html